Napoleon, For and Against
Arc de Triomphe, Place du Carrousel, Paris (1806-1836)
The Revolution as seen by Jacques-Louis David, 1748-1825
1789
1793
Introductory Comments: Rights, Terror, Bonaparte
1801
“The French nation, content to be free, has no desire to engage in any war;
It wishes to live with all nations in the fraternity ordered by nature.”
Robespierre, May 1790.
“May all nations be as free as we wish to be and there will be no war.”
Duke de Lévis, May 1790.
“The French nation renounces the undertaking
of any war aimed at conquest and will never
employ its forces against the liberty of
any people.”
National Assembly decree, May 1790.
Aristocracy Destroyed by the National Guard (1790?)
War and revolution: a changing relationship
“You would do better to join the army”?
1789-1791
idealistic renunciation of war;
complicated by Flight to Varennes
1791-1793 Girondins (Brissot, Roland, Clavière)
argue for war against Austria and the
émigrés; war declared, April 1792
1793-1794
National Convention defends
Republic from its “enemies”
1794-1799
thermidorean Convention and the Directory try to repress
domestic popular violence (counter-revolution or continued
revolution?); see international revolution as tool of war
War and revolution: a changing relationship
Besieging the Home Front
Constitution (of Year III) suspended
criminal courts replaced by military justice
all crimes are therefore acts of treason
Departments where “state of siege” declared, 1797-1799
Based on Howard G. Brown, Ending the French Revolution: Violence,
Justice, and Repression (Charlottesville and London: University of
Virginia Press, 2006).
Charles François Dumouriez, 1739-1823
son of career military officer
French captain in Seven Years’ War (1757-1763)
sent on various secret missions by French court
assist Polish in fight against Russians
Swedish king to put down noble uprising
jailed briefly in Bastille (misuse of funds)
taught military drill in Lille; commanded port of Cherbourg
Jemappes, 6 Nov.
1792
Valmy, 20 Sept. 1792
Military power, civilian politics: two examples
Revolution in the Austrian Netherlands, 1789-1793
1789 Joseph II’s reforms (closing monasteries, abolishing the tithe, civil rights
for Jews) opposed both by self-styled “democrats” and by local elites
(aristocracy, Church officials, city leaders)
joint uprising drives out Austrians, then purges “Democrats”
1791 Austrians return
1792 Dumouriez and French forces cheered in Brussels
1792- Decree on “Bringing Liberty” orders Dumouriez
1793 to introduce reforms far more drastic than those
Joseph II had proposed
1793 Dumouriez refuses; tries to turn army against
Paris; surrenders himself to Austrians
“The Savior of Belgium;
Dumouriez marches on Paris”
Military power, civilian politics: two examples
Napoleone Buonaparte
son of Corsican aristocrats
attended Military Academy on scholarship; nearly
took commission in Ottoman Turkish army
organized revolutionary club in Ajaccio (Corsica)
friend of Robespierre’s younger brother
(jailed for eleven days after 9 thermidor)
refused when ordered to the Vendée
1796 Army of Italy
1797 Peace of Campo Formio—rejects civilian
instructions; gives Venice to Austria
fructidor V (Sept 1797)—sends General Augereau
and his forces to support coup against royalists
and moderates elected in May
Military power, civilian politics: two examples
Dumouriez and Bonaparte both:
win major victories
negotiate treaties without civilian/state approval
lead/send armies against legally elected French officials
Why is one a hero and the other a traitor?
Military power, civilian politics: two examples
personal qualities? Do individuals change history?
ambitious
tremendously hard working
attention to detail
new strategies and military techniques
rapid deployment of large masses of soldiers
concentrated force against single position
Directory context
Image management
What makes Bonaparte special?
The Directory, 1795-1799
five man executive; two house legislature
inherits wars, debt problem, polarized politics
re-introduces free trade; defaults on assignats;
defaults on most of inherited debt (“bankruptcy
of the two-thirds”)
stationery designed and made in Italy
for Bonaparte as commander (late 1796-1797)
What makes Bonaparte special? The Directory context
The eyes of Europe and the world are
fixed more than even on the French
Republic… but in Paris, which was long
ago delivered to factionalism and the spirit
of parties… writers are too often only
the slaves of powerful men. All facts
are distorted to the profit of those who
speculate on lies, and truth searches in
vain for an asylum.
In Milan, by contrast, where there are
fewer people and the same plots do not
exist… the republican observer can think
calmly and present the sacred flame
of moderation that should shine across
the universe…Only this spirit of moderation
and fraternity can destroy those memories of
Courrier of the Italian Army, by a society past misfortunes which are the source of
of French Republicans (July 1797)
division and conflict
What makes Bonaparte special? image management
If we only consulted our feelings, we would
wish ardently for an end to this deluge of
blood… But if we turn our eyes to the future,
we see the need of new battles. …
A conquering republic is the benefactor of
the nations it conquers. … And you, young
hero, who have already shown yourself the
equal of the greatest men of all time, and
who may yet surpass them all… You can yet
bring together the double glory of conqueror
and of the benefactor of nations.
Courrier of the Italian Army, by a society
of French Republicans
What makes Bonaparte special? image management
Napoleon, For and Against
gives institutional permanence to Revolution
individual genius; “World spirit on horseback”
rose through the ranks based on talent
snow and ice sculpture; Harbin, China (2008)
violates most important gains of 1789-1799
military dictatorship; model for Hitler, Mussolini
plunged Europe into 16 more years of war
Re-enactment of Battle of Austerlitz, 2005
Napoleon Bonaparte
1769
born “Napoleone Buonaparte” in Corsica
Dec. 1793
Oct. 1795
central in re-taking Toulon from the British;
puts down royalist uprising in Paris
Jan. 1796
Sept. 1797
1798-1799
named commander-in-chief of Italian Army
aids fructidor coup
Egyptian campaign
Nov. 1799
(18 brumaire VIII) military/constitutional coup
Feb. 1800
Aug. 1802
May 1804
Referendum confirms Bonaparte as “First Consul”
Referendum makes him “Consul for Life”
Referendum makes him “Emperor Napoleon”
1807-1808
1812
1814
French Empire extends to its largest
attempted invasion of Russia
Napoleon abdicates; sent into exile in Elba
1815
Napoleon returns to rule for “Hundred Days”;
defeated at Waterloo,imprisoned on St. Helena
1821
1840
dies in St. Helena;
remains returned to France
What makes Bonaparte special? a historical figure “outside” history
13:1 Then I saw a beast come out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads;
on its horns were ten diadems, and on its heads blasphemous names…
13:3 Fascinated, the whole world followed after the beast. …
13:7 …and it was granted authority over every tribe, people, tongue, and nation.
What makes Bonaparte special?: a historical figure “outside” history
Napoleon, For and Against
This question—as to the means whereby
freedom develops itself into a world—leads
us to history itself... The great men in history
are those whose own particular aims contain
the substantial will that is the will of the World
Spirit. They can be called heroes, because
they have drawn their aim and their vocation
not merely from the calm and orderly system
that is the sanctified course of things, but
rather from a source that is hidden. …
G.W.F. Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy
of History (written 1817-1832; pub. 1840).
“This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased”
(satire of baptism of Jesus in book of Matthew)
German caricature, c. 1813
Bonaparte conceived the idea of effecting a counter-revolution to his own advantage
by retaining in the state nothing new except himself. He re-established the throne,
the clergy, and the nobility; …It was not enough to have degraded the republican
party by entirely changing its nature; Bonaparte wished also to deprive the royalists
of that dignity which they owed to their perseverance and their misfortunes. He gave
the greater part of the offices of his household to nobles of the Old Regime. He thus
flattered the new race by mingling them with the old, and as he himself united the
vanity of an upstart to the gigantic talents of a conqueror, he loved the flattery of the
courtiers of the former reign…Whenever a gentleman of the old court called back
to recollection the etiquette of the days that were gone and proposed …
a certain mode of knocking at the door of an antechamber, a more ceremonious
manner of presenting a dispatch, of folding a letter… he was received as if he had
made a contribution to the happiness of the human race.
Germaine de Staël, Considerations on the Revolution in France (1817).
In our society there is a standing antagonism between the conservative and
democratic classes… The first is timid, selfish, hating innovation, and continually
losing numbers by death. The second is selfish, too, but bold, self-relying,
always outnumbering the other and recruiting to its numbers at every hour by birth…
Napoleon is its representative [and] the incarnate democrat. He had their virtues
and their vices; above all, he had their spirit or aim. That tendency is material…
highly intellectual, widely and accurately learned, but subordinating all such forces
into means of material success.
… a man of Napoleon’s stamp almost ceases to have a private speech and opinion.
He is so largely receptive, and is so placed, that he comes to be a bureau for all
the intelligence, wit, and power of the age and country. He gains the battle, he makes
the code; he makes the system of weights and measures; he levels the Alps; he
builds the roads. All distinguished engineers, savants, statists, report to him:
so likewise do all good heads in every kind. He adopts all the best measures, sets
his stamp on them and on every happy and memorable expression….
Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Napoleon, or the Man of the World” (1850)
With a ridiculous pretension to vastness of design, and universal observation
and intelligence, Bonaparte orders at the same moment the copybooks of
the schoolboys of Paris to be shown to him, and that England shall be
invaded and conquered! In the same breath, he regulates the length
of the trains of the ladies who appear at court, to establish a distinction
in favour of the imperial princesses; and chides the inhabitants of Metz,
with an affectation of paternal care and authority, for not preventing a
fire that turned many of them houseless into the streets…He said,
in an arrête of ten words “Slavery is re-established in St Domingo, as in 1796.”
But a black Emperor has sprung up there, who apes the actions of Bonaparte;
and the inhabitants and negroes are free from French domination, few of his
shattered army remaining to tell the story of their defeat.
Bonaparte makes the people of France forget the failure of one of his projects,
by the activity with which he turns to another.
A Sketch of the Present State of France, by an English gentleman,
who escaped from Paris in the month of May last (London: 1805).